In a conventional vending machine, after the machine is loaded with products, the product locations and product identities are typically manually determined and manually entered into a database. A product location that is manually entered is typically a set of X-Y (horizontal-vertical) coordinates or a fixed product slot with a known location. When products are replaced or reorganized, this process is typically repeated and new product identities and product locations are manually entered. If new products are a different size or shape, the person loading the machine sometimes adjusts the heights of the shelves and/or the lateral positions of shelf dividers to accommodate the changes in product size. This typically necessitates manual determination and entry of the new locations of the shelves and dividers, as well as manual entry of the locations and identities of the new products.
In vending machines where a “blind” automated product retrieval device is used to retrieve products based on location coordinates stored in a database, the precision with which a person manually determines and enters the product coordinates can need to be very precise. If the coordinates of a product location are off by just small distance, such a “blind” retrieval device can fail to properly retrieve the product, and can cause problems like knocking the products over on the shelves or damaging the products. This sort of problem often occurs when products shift on the shelves, shelves bow under product weight, the shelves become misaligned, or other similar situations. Furthermore, if an error occurs and a product is retrieved that is not what a purchaser selected, there is no way for conventional vending machines to verify the identity of the retrieved product before it is vended to the purchaser. Vending the wrong product can be a significant issue especially when the products being sold are expensive, such as electronic devices.